Jeg mater katten.

I feed the cat.

Breakdown of Jeg mater katten.

• jeg: I
• katten: the cat
• mate: to feed

Questions & Answers about Jeg mater katten.

Why is jeg only capitalized here? Is it always capitalized like English I?

No. In Norwegian, jeg is only capitalized at the beginning of a sentence or in other normal capitalization situations. Unlike English, the first-person singular pronoun is not automatically written with a capital letter in the middle of a sentence.

• Jeg mater katten.
• Katten ser at jeg mater den.

So English I is special; Norwegian jeg is not.

Why is it katten and not a separate word for the, like the cat?

Norwegian usually puts the definite article at the end of the noun.

• katt = cat
• en katt = a cat
• katten = the cat

So katten is literally cat + the.

This is very different from English, and it is one of the first big grammar patterns English speakers need to get used to.

A useful extra note:

• with an adjective, Norwegian often uses double definiteness:
  • den svarte katten = the black cat

What is mater exactly? What is the dictionary form?